Federal law prohibits the government from funding research in which human embryos are destroyed. In August, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered an injunction that blocked the government from implementing National Institutes of Health guidelines that took effect last year.

The Justice Department’s Beth Brinkmann, who heads the Civil Division appellate section, argued Monday in the D.C. Circuit that putting Lamberth's ruling on hold was necessary to preserve millions of dollars in ongoing research. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Thomas Hungar, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs, argued the government had failed to show how the injunction caused any harm.